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A protester is caught in an apparent chokehold at a demonstration last year.
A report released by NYPD Inspector General Philip Eure on January 12 found "alarming" use within the department of a long-banned chokehold technique.According to the ins...

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"What time is it? Showtime!"
Anyone who frequents the L train between First Avenue and Bedford Avenue is familiar with these chants from buskers, known for breakdancing, splitting, and working poles in ways that should be impossible in crammed subw...

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On January 12, about eight protesters dropped to the floor of Grand Central Terminal to protest police violence. They were staging a "die-in" by reenacting the seven minutes Eric Garner lay unconscious on the ground after an altercation with police.
...

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Khr as he appears in a photo on the Main Squeeze website
In Dante's Inferno, the eighth circle of hell is reserved for thieves and falsifiers.
If there's any justice in the afterlife, that's where the dude who allegedly stole $650 in cash -- fr...

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Would you join in next year?
"What's going on?"
"They are going to catch a cold."
"Mum? Mum? Underwear [points and giggles]. No pants."
"It's for some type of fraternity. What else would make you humiliate yourself like that?"
"Only in New Yor...

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Brian Waddell, who represents approximately one-thirtieth of the Manhattan Libertarian Party's dues-paying membership, is standing in Times Square on a frigid Saturday, checking his phone.He's expecting five of his compatriots for a demonstration tha...

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Grimm's online presence has expired along with his career.
If life today is lived online, Michael Grimm is but an angry, jut-jawed digital memory.Now that Congress's bro-iest bro has finally resigned, having pleaded guilty to the long list of tax ...

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Last month, an average of 4 percent of Americans reported being sick with the flu on any given day, according to a Gallup report released January 8. Because December isn't even peak flu month -- reports tend to be their highest in January and Februar...

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A police officer observes protesters, who on January 7 defied the MTA's ban on lying on the floor at Grand Central Terminal.
On January 6, officials at the Metropolitan Transit Authority announced plans to resume enforcing a longstanding ban on "d...

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A crowd at the Center for Cuban Studies in October, during a book-signing for Back Channel to Cuba.
When President Barack Obama officially announced plans to restore diplomatic ties with Cuba, the minds of many Americans immediately went to cigars...

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A French expat is organizing a rally in Union Square in support of free speech and to show solidarity with Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine targeted in a terrorist attack earlier today.A Facebook page promoting the rally -- scheduled to s...

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What are you going to take home from YOUR pedicure?
Hepatitis.
Staphylococcus.
MRSA.
You probably don't want to think about these diseases when you go to the nail salon for a pedicure. But if your salon technicians aren't properly sanitizing...

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The original gravity knife bears little resemblance to the knives that currently land New Yorkers in jail.
A Manhattan lawmaker will take another stab at changing a knife law that has led to the arrest of as many as 60,000 people in New York City ...

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Reverend Billy "sermonizing," moments before his arrest
Professional protester and self-described Earthalujah preacher Reverend Billy Talen was arrested today while preaching in Grand Central Station about police brutality, the NYPD has confirmed ...

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Stanley Cohen in his Lower East Side apartment sporting a kaffiyeh -- a symbol of Palestinian independence.
Mid October, 2014.
Stanley Cohen abruptly stops responding to voicemails. When you dial his cell, you hear the telltale sound of an overse...

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An NYPD officer in the 70th Precinct has been suspended for his role in the injuring of a fellow officer who was caught on video riding on the hood of a police cruiser.
The video, which Eyewitness News reported was taken at Seton Place and Parkvil...

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Transit police in the 1970s had awesome hair.
In the fall of 1972, New York City transit police were negotiating a new employment contract -- and they were not happy with city leadership. Contract negotiations with their department's commissioner,...

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When I wrote this story, in June 1982, during the Democratic primary campaign for New York governor, Mario Cuomo was still seven points behind Ed Koch, who had defeated him for mayor only five years earlier with a strong death penalty pitch that Cuom...

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De Blasio and Bratton take questions today at City Hall.
New York Police Department Commissioner Bill Bratton lambasted the NYPD officers who turned their backs on the mayor during Wenjian Liu's funeral on Sunday.
"I just don't understand it," s...

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On December 20, the day that New York Police Department officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were murdered while they sat in their cruiser in Brooklyn, a petition was launched demanding the resignation of Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Fifteen days and more...